Catch Up Time

Sorry, Dear Readers, that I have posted so infrequently, and not at all recently. The house remodel has provided so much rich material for blogging, that I am overwhelmed! Both by trying to decide what to write about first, and by dealing with everything that is coming up. Basically, I'm not sure what the House inspection was for, because it sure didn't find the problems with this house! And there are some MAJOR ones! They come up so quickly and then snowball out of control and, well, I guess I just need to take a really deep breath... of nitrous oxide.

Basically we are spending a lot of money to heat our driveway, to get rid of the snow, because no one is willing to plow it due to the very steep slope. We knew of this problem going in, thinking that we could handle one issue to solve.

The "Chimney" project has caused us to replace an entire 6"x12" beam that had dry rot all the way through AND our entire fireplace has to be torn out and rebuilt. Then they can build a new chimney and finally seal off the roof. Goodbye, beautiful wall of granite:-( We just can't afford to rebuild you.

Have I mentioned that the foundation of the house is sinking? Basically the concrete that holds the major support posts (Tim says they are called "piers") are shaped like bullets. That is perfect, if you want to auger deeper into the ground. But we DON'T WANT TO!!!!! So now we have to fix the foundation.

These are just some examples of the fun I am having.

And then there is sock wars. I would have had my socks all done and mailed off to Edinburgh to kill my target. Except for my big dumb mistake. Oh well, I'm not out of it yet. I'll post on all of this in detail eventually. After I get my hands on some valium.

Dyeing with the Fiberphiles

Last week the fiberphiles got together at Emily's place to dye some wool.



During the downtime, Kristin and Shibani went to check out Emily's Stash...


Now there has been some disscussion on whose stash is bigger, mine or Emily's. The word has been that Emily wins the stash contest. With her (somewhat) recently organized stash, I was able to get a better look. My stash is bigger than that! Well, not much bigger and it turns out She's got more in boxes. Hers is still bigger.

Back to dyeing: some of our results:

A Sweater for Jack

Tim's Parents are in town visiting us, and they brought a couple of sweaters. The sweaters had been a gift for Tim's Aunt and Uncle. They are really big and thick (the sweaters, not the relatives) so they (the relatives, not the sweaters) said they would not wear them and pawned the sweaters off on us. Well, we had the same issue with the sweaters. While I was off at lab, Tim had a light bulb moment and enlisted his mother for his secret plan. Upon my return, I asked where the guys were, and apparently was not given the entire answer. Then I found the forearm of one of those sweaters on the back of a chair, all by itself. I proceeded to question my Mother-in-Law more carefully and uncovered their plot. Here's what they were up to:




Why they were being sneaky about it, I have no idea. Tim was actually out getting some tape to for his mother to bind the rough cut edges of the sweater.

I introduce Jack, our 95lb great dane yellow lab mix. He should have been named Marmaduke. He is a big, strong whimp. Jack gets really cold in the harsh Seattle (indoor) winters. We often find him worshiping lying on the heating vents in our floors. I knit him a sweater last winter, but the measurements need some adjustment in future versions. Now, Jack has a new sweater, and Tim has a new career. First Tim is going to learn to sew. Then he will recycle people sweaters for dogs. He says he'll take the sewing machine to work and sew while waiting for flights. He plans to sell his sweaters online. Apparently "we" will also offer custom hand knit sweaters for dogs. In the summer, he will offer recycled T-shirts. Stay tuned as our online empire grows!

Art

When we met with our architect friends, back in August, we were given an assignment: buy art. We learned which walls ought to have a significant piece of art, and requirements for those pieces. This may appear bossy, or us docile, but neither of those is true! We also had an earlier assignment, before we met with them. In the earlier assignment, we were asked to get magazines with home architecture and style. We were to clip images of things we like, to help them get a good feel for our taste/style. During that process, Tim found a few pieces of art that he liked and clipped. Encouraged, because we all said, "Hey, that's cool," Tim hunted down and acquired one of those pieces.



Yes, that is a moose, made of thin pieces of wood all fitted together. Of course, it will look a lot better in a rustic house in the Mountains than it does in a quaint little 1929 house. And a darker paint color would help! Just in case you are wondering, the moose does not meet the description of any of the assigned pieces of art. It's a bonus piece!

Template fumbling

I am experimenting with my template, so please excuse the rough edges in the next few days.

Ta da...The Grand Stairwell!

Remember the great room? We need to update it. It was a bit dated.

And the dark stairwell?


Here is the architect sketch for what we plan to do to the stairwell. We are going to open up the stairwell and great room by removing part of the wall between them and a small bit of wall at the top of the stairs as well.


Tim has been very industrious in his demolition. He sent me these photos today to show me what he has done. I was delighted when I saw that he had opened up that wall! He has also removed the dark paneling. I think it is glorious! Now I'm looking forward to seeing the railing on the stairs opened up.




I am delighted by it! We are Tim is just interviewing General Contractors and requesting bids. The project hasn't really even started yet, and the house is already transformed! I am amazed by how much work he has done. He's been working nights, so he has a lot of time during the day, but this is above and beyond. Thanks Tim, for all your hard work, and for the pictures that let me see our house.

Giving in to the Urge

I've had enough of staying up until 2-3am analyzing my data. I don't know why I do it, because it is never enough for my advisor anyway. So, I'm going to try to enjoy life and take time for myself again. This afternoon I took a trip to the LYS (local yarn store, not Lysine) with the girls. I have been working very hard for many months to resist the urge to purchase some dyes, so I can dye my own yarn, fleece, roving etc. Ever since Emily had the Fiberphiles over to dye some yarn, I knew I was hooked. "You don't have time for this," I told myself. "You should spend the time in lab, finishing the PhD." I kept telling myself. Well, I gave in today. I could no longer resist. I bought 9 jars of Jacquard acid dyes and some squirt bottles for application. I can't wait to play with them this weekend.

I still plan on a post with house stuff. We got the plans from our friends (architects) on Wednesday. They are so great!

4500 qPCR reactions

All those reactions I was doing went well. Now I'm busy analyzing >4500 reactions, so I probably won't have another post until this weekend. I have pix from Tim's demolition, so there will be a good post as soon as I have the time for it.

My Penance

I was so dissapointed in myself for having lost that USB flash drive, that I gave myself penance. I went and got a new USB drive that is attached to a lanyard to be worn around the neck. I also attached my security card, so the whole thing would be too big drop without noticing. The security card came with a lanyard, but I always thought it was kind of dorky to walk around with it around my neck. I usually slip it in my back pocket. But now I must wear the whole dorky set up as my penance.

I was able to successfuly set up and run that plate (of the lost data) Sunday. I also made DNA preps from a bunch of samples (yeast cells). I know I said this blog wouldn't be about science, but I thought I'd post a picture of my DNA drying, so those of you who don't play with things like DNA regularly could check it out. Basically it looks like schmutz at the bottom of the tube and often on one side as well. In this picture, you can see the white pellets at the bottom of the tubes (they're upside down). Those are the ones that had the most cells in them.

PhD progress

So how is the science going and when will I finish? Not fast enough and not soon enough! I was hoping to have the benchwork (that's the actual science/research) finished by August 1st, but I wasn't done then. Now I'm hoping to finish in just a few more weeks. After that is finished, my committee thinks I'll need 3 months for writing. That's to write my paper and my thesis. At least the end is in sight.

I had a little setback on the benchwork this week. I had a long day on Wednesday, setting up and running over 1000 reactions. These were in 3 plates of 384 rxns each. When I came in Thursday morning, I copied the data from the machine onto my USB flash drive to take back to lab to analyze. I stopped on my way up to read a joural article in the library reading room and then went back up to lab. After 15 minutes of chatting, I went to look at my data, and I couldn't find my USB drive! I looked every where, retraced my steps multiple times, contacted the library, and the security folks (they are in charge of lost and found) to no avail. I was able to recover 2 out of three plates from the machine, but not the 3rd (long story why, but my dumb mistake). So I went in to lab today to re-do the lost plate. I screwed that up, so I gave up and went home. Maybe I'll get it right tomorrow! This isn't the way to finish quickly!

At least I am making progress on the blog! This makes 2 posts in less than 7 days!

The Great House Remodel project has begun!

Here's what our new (future) house looks like from the driveway.


...and from the deck. I love this picture, because our fabulous view of Lake Tahoe is reflected in the windows, along with my darling husband.

I flew to Tahoe for several days to meet with my husband and our architects. We have some friends, who are great architects, and we flew them up from Dallas for 3 days of planning. We worked non-stop and came up with all of the plans for our huge remodel (both phases). They had some great ideas and our house is going to be even better than I could have imagined. We made a lot of decisions, with their guidance, and are almost ready to start getting bids from GCs. I just got home today, and I am really excited about it!

Our house was built in 1965 and we purchased it from the original owners. It has not been updated at all. It has dark paneling, bright blue tiles, funky light fixtures and even shag carpet. We have to update everything.

The outside will not really change until Phase 2, which includes the first level of the house. Phase 1 will include the great room and kitchen, the stairwell, and the upper floor which includes the master bedroom and bath, my "green room", the dog room, 2nd bath and the 2nd bedroom. All of the paneling will be removed, dry-walled and painted. Here are some "before" pictures
We will be opening the stairwell up, with light colored walls, and an open railing and hardwood flooring. We will have some cool lights hanging down that will be like a piece of art.

In the great room we will have light colored paint and hardwood floors. The big change will be to open up the wall to the left of the granite fireplace. The stairwell will be opened up even more this way as well as the great room.

The kitchen will be totally re-done. We are going to get natural gas to the house which will allow us to put in a gas stove (not to mention central heating). The island will be a real island (no wimpy bridge/ counter strip) with a prep sink and bar area. The eating-at kind, not drink-mixing. We have picked out granite for the counters and slate for the floors. And stainless appliances, though we have to pick the exact ones.


The 2nd bathroom obviously needs some help. The weird hallway thing will be integrated into the bathroom, so that the shower will not be adjacent to the back door. The blue tile and fixtures are history along with the blue door!

All I can say is ICK! The Master bath will be stripped, opened up and beautiful! There are a bunch of storage cabinets that will be removed and there is really a lot of space to work with. We'll have two sinks, a large tub, and a shower for two. We have picked out tiles for the floor, walls of wet area, and accent. We know what kind of toilet, sinks etc, but don't have exact models yet.

We'll be living downstairs in the "rumpus" room for quite a while, I think.




When I get some of the architect's sketches, I'll post them to give a better idea of what we are doing.

We had a great tutorial on lighting this weekend. I knew lighting was important for tasks, and that the right fixture can make a room, decor-wise. What I learned is how a space can be transformed with the right kind of lighting. Suzanne did an amazing job showing us what we need in terms of lighting. She also showed us where we should have art and what kinds of pieces in each space. We have been wanting to invest in some art, but didn't really know what we wanted or where to begin. Now we know what will be best in our new house and we are eager to begin our search!

What kind of progress, exactly?

... Trumpet sound...Ta Da! My first official post. Imagine a brass ensemble in the back ground. Can you add music or any kind of sound to a blog? Before I answer the teaser title above, I want to introduce myself. It will make a lot more sense then.

My name is Daisy and I am a graduate student. I am finishing up my PhD in molecular and cellular biology. My thesis work focuses on genomic instability in diploid yeast using Loss of Heterozygosity. That is for those who care. I do not intend to blog about science, only about trying to finish it.

I knit with a group of gals (all scientists) almost daily. Emily has her own blog on our exploits, so I'll put a link to that as soon as I get around to figuring that out.

Once the PhD is finished I will be moving to Homewood, California on the west shore of beautiful Lake Tahoe. My husband, Tim, and I have purchased a nice house. The house needs a lot of work so we have a big remodel in front of us.

This blog will chronicle my Progress in many things including, but not limited to:
-finishing up the PhD
-knitting projects and progress
-the house in Tahoe and the remodeling project it brings

coming soon

well, eventually.